Suggestions for laptop with good color

[Czornyj]

ThinkPad W550s
Intel Core i7-5600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.20GHz)
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L
NVIDIA Quadro K620M 2GB
512 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3
£1,852.79

It's far cry from rMBP15 equivalent.

Recently I switched to rMBP15 '15 from my old rMBP13 '12, and I sold my former Macbook in a blink of an eye for a good money (>50% of original price). Now try that trick with 2-3 years old PC laptop

[Chris Livsey]

It's far cry from rMBP15 equivalent.

How far and whose crying?

That kind of comment, no doubt dashed off from a wealth of experience, brief and succinct, does make for a snappy forum post but is no help whatsoever to me as a computer tech illiterate.
I see the Apple range as expensive, and own one, now at least two members tell me I'm wrong , that's fine, it's happened before to look anywhere else. I don't want or need a sales pitch, an Apple v the rest argument, just why, financially ( and I know about the Apple resale kudos, like Leica even the digital suff sells with their name on) I need to stick with them. A lot of posts in the thread find fault with their direction, to my reading others are similiar in parts, which they all have access to, but apparently they are not.
Would you care to expand on "a far cry" ?

[Hans Kruse]

ThinkPad W550s
Intel Core i7-5600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.20GHz)
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L
NVIDIA Quadro K620M 2GB
512 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3
£1,852.79

As a quick example.
BTW Apple since a IIe    (DUAL floppy drives !!)

I looked the Thinkpad up on a Danish online shop and what I see is a price of 19499 Danish Kroner and the specs of the machine is
i7 -5600U dual core 2.4Ghz. 512GB SSD (interface not specified). NVIDIA Quadro K620M / Intel HD Graphics 5500
Weight 2,3kg, dimensions 38x25,8x2,2cm

The similar MacBook Pro for Denmark is: 21499 DKK and specs:
i7 2,5Ghz quad core, 512GB SSD PCIe (almost 2GB/s benchmarked). Intel Iris Pro Graphics/AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2GB
Weight: 2kg, dimensions 35,8x24,7x1,8cm.

So the main difference is a dual core machine compared to a quad core and a slimmer and lighter design of the MacBook Pro, not to mentioned design simplicity and elegance. But that's a personal taste, of course.

If you ever consider buying the Thinkpad, then try the trackpad first and compare to the MacBook pro trackpad. On my workshops I have people who need help on their Windows laptops and it always surprises me how bad the trackpads on the Windows laptops are. On the MacBook the trackpad just works really well. I never even bring a mouse with me for the MacBook when I travel. In my office behind a big screen, keyboard I use the Apple Magic Mouse. I would also recommend to try out how well the Windows laptop handles multiple displays. The MacBook can out of the box handle up to two external 4K displays in addition to the built-in display.

I'm sure one can get used to Windows laptops again but in my opinion they should be a lot cheaper and be built as well as the MacBook for me to ever consider one But this is just me.

[AlterEgo]

So I don't see your point on the Apple tax.

just see the prices of Clevo machines with their configurations @ http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-clevo-sager-notebooks-ct-95_51_162.html

that is if you don't need a slim, shiny & beautiful body to m$$$$$$te on it.... there are simply things that you can't get in MacPro notebook or MacMini

[Hans Kruse]

just see the prices of Clevo machines with their configurations @ http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-clevo-sager-notebooks-ct-95_51_162.html

that is if you don't need a slim, shiny & beautiful body to m$$$$$$te on it.... there are simply things that you can't get in MacPro notebook or MacMini

I didn't easily spot a MacBook Pro 15" like the $2499 version http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

When I clicked customize a long list of unwieldy options appeared that seemed to be a mix of desktop and laptop. But I do agree that there are things you can't get in a MacBook Pro like e.g. a 17" screen. In the Windows world there are many more options and if you like Windows that's fine.

[Some Guy]

I have an old Clevo D900 marketed in the USA by Sager (and Falcon, AlienWare.).  Might be 7-8 years old and still blows most anything out of the water today. It's 3.2 Ghz i7 clockable Quad, 12GB RAM, three HD's, (One is a RAID 1), Blu-Ray/DVD burner, etc.  I got it for video editing back then as most box store units would overheat and shut down after three days of non-stop editing.  It cost about $3,500 back then, and I see they get up to about $7,000 now in their 17" screen customizations which make them user upgradable much like an old desktop in a case.

I did have to replace the LCD screen myself once and it cost me about $135 for the 15" screen.  The x-rite calibrator told me the brightness couldn't be raised so the light was dimming.  Not too big of a job, but I grew a lot of respect for all the copper cooling plumbing, fans, etc. inside the thing.  Really was engineered well compared to the lower-tier mortar store units.

I figure it is maybe two generations ahead of most out there (Then, and still is.) so it doesn't have to be replaced as often as it is still pretty much up to snuff with the new gear out there so the initial high cost was offset over the longer term of service.

SG

[AlterEgo]

When I clicked customize a long list of unwieldy options appeared that seemed to be a mix of desktop and laptop.

yes, those are big machines - desktop replacements... that is exactly the point

But I do agree that there are things you can't get in a MacBook Pro like e.g. a 17" screen.

or 32gb RAM or dual GPU or desktop-grade CPU оr 4 SSD inside or everything like this in one notebook... and some of them still can ran OSX on that PC hardware if you invest some time in forums devoted to hackintosh (yes, Apple EULA does not allow, so what)

[AlterEgo]

I have an old Clevo D900 marketed in the USA by Sager (and Falcon, AlienWare.).

there are couple of US dealers that buy barebones from Clevo directly (and notebooks will be identified as Clevo), but most USA dealers buy Clevo through Sager and notebooks marked as Sager (different model naming scheme)... prices are the same though, same hardware inside

[Hans Kruse]

yes, those are big machines - desktop replacements... that is exactly the point

or 32gb RAM or dual GPU or desktop-grade CPU оr 4 SSD inside or everything like this in one notebook... and some of them still can ran OSX on that PC hardware if you invest some time in forums devoted to hackintosh (yes, Apple EULA does not allow, so what)

I agree and did not want to extensively mention the differences But a laptop in this class does not make sense for me. If I wanted stationary gaming level machine I would buy a machine standing beside my desk. I had that for some years and had a laptop besides this. In 2009 I switched to MacBook Pro as it would fulfil all my needs for a machine in my office with a keyboard, mouse and big monitor as well as a laptop on the road. The current top of the line MacBook Pro 15" is great for that. But for others the needs may well be different as I travel a lot. The slim 2 kg MBP is ideal for that for me.

[Czornyj]

Would you care to expand on "a far cry" ?

rMBP15 '15 has 16:10 ratio IPS display, that's larger and has additional 200px in height than 16:9 ratio W550s. The glossy display features anti-reflex and OCF (Optical Compensation Film) - it's sharp, readable in bright conditions, and the black doesn't leak in darkness - W550s has no OCF and matte finish, so it's more prone to flare, clouding/sparkling and black leaking. The TRC is perfectly linearised to γ2.2, and backlight type is blue LED with green and red phosphors, that's white point is natively close to D65 and primaries are pretty close to sRGB (~100% coverage), while W550 has blue LED with yellow phosphor, natively less neutral wtpt and only ~76% sRGB coverage.

Furthermore, the Macbook has faster CPU (9273 vs 4366 in cpubenchmark.net) GPU (1668 vs 771), it can drive up to 3 external displays (2 UHD displays), and has the fastest PCIe x4 SSD I've ever saw. All that in light, slim, elegant, robust and very scratch and dirt resistant enclosure, with fabulous multi gesture touchpad and magsafe charger.

Of course there are faster mobile workstations with more expanding possibilities, but none (I believe) offers such combination of very decent display, performance, small weight, slim housing, robustness, and elegance.

[Chris Livsey]

rMBP15 '15 has 16:10 ratio IPS display,

Massive snip.

Thank you that is very much appreciated.

[Kiwi Paul]

The Dell XPS15 is a very good well spec'ed laptop. It has a high resolution screen and excellent colour for photographic work. I bought mine a year ago and have not regretted it one bit. I'm not sure of the latest spec but mine has an I7 processor, 16G RAM, 500GB SSD, 3 x USB 3 ports, etc, I use LR CC and Photoshop CC and it handles both those applications without any issues.

Paul